Ore. free summer lunches: More need, fewer kids

Fewer lower-income children in Oregon are getting the free summer meals available to them. A new report from the Food Research and Action Center says more than 207,000 Oregon children get free or reduced-price lunches at school, but only 36,000 receive the free summer meals.

One dilemma is that summer food is often tied to summer school or enrichment programs. Crystal FitzSimons, director of FRAC’s School and Out-of-School-Time programs, says budget cuts have shortened or ended many of those activities.

“The programs are not serving all of the kids that they should,” says FitzSimons. “Part of the big problem – and this is true in urban, suburban and rural areas – is that there are not enough summer programs for low-income children to keep them safe, engaged and active during the summer months.”

Oregon’s drop in participation was only 1 percent, although statewide, that means for every 100 children who receive free or reduced-price meals during the school year, only about 18 get the same benefit in the summer. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has made it a goal this summer to increase the meals served by 5 million, nationwide. The report noted that the USDA has made an effort to minimize the paperwork requirements for meal program sponsors.

Another challenge is making the more than 700 meal sites around the state convenient for kids and families, according to FitzSimons.

“Transportation is one of the big barriers for the summer nutrition programs,” she says. “It is harder in communities that are rural to get kids to and from summer sites. And it can even be hard in some urban areas, where transportation might be limited.”

The report says about half the states had fewer children receiving summer meals in 2012 compared with 2011, which runs counter to the increased need that has been seen during the school years since the recession began.

The full report is online at http://frac.org.

Chris Thomas of Oregon News Service provided this story